


Where's Grayson?

by CamsthiSky



Series: Where's Grayson? [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU
Genre: Damian Wayne Feels, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 06:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11709174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamsthiSky/pseuds/CamsthiSky
Summary: isi7140 asked: "Where's Grayson?" (after Damian's resurrection)orDamian comes back to life only to find that Richard Grayson has died.





	Where's Grayson?

“I don’t understand,” Damian says, blinking at the people who had come for him, who had taken him  _home._  Only when he’d gotten there, home wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Where is he?”

Drake cringes, Todd looks away, and Father’s expression sours. Behind the three, Pennyworth stands just a little bit straighter, just enough to tip Damian off to what he’s been missing this whole time. He studies each individual, but no one comes forward. No one tells him the truth.

“Where is Grayson?!” Damian demands, trembling hands gripping the counter in front of him as he leans forwards.  _“Tell me!”_

“Dick is dead,” his father says, and it’s flat and final. “The Crime Syndicate killed him.”

“You’re lying,” is Damian’s immediate denial. It can’t be true, because if it were, his father would be obsessing and angry and  _grieving._  He wouldn’t be blank and emotionless. It had to be wrong. But Todd’s and Drake’s faces, and Pennyworth’s gritted teeth, they’re tells that Father is  _not_  lying. But— “You  _have_  to be lying.”

“He’s gone, Damian,” Todd tells him, his voice low.

He can’t be.  _He can’t be._

Before Damian can think much of it, he’s sprinting out the door, towards the family cemetery. He pushes through the gate, looks around wildly and—and he stops short. He sees it. He—

It can’t be true, and yet there is the headstone. There is the  _grave marker,_  covered with cards and flowers and tears. Their family—while Damian had been gone—his family had grieved for the both of them. For him, Damian, and for Grayson. And now Damian’s returned, and the world is so much colder than he remembers.

He feels sick. It comes on suddenly, and Damian forces himself to turn away, to stagger away from the—from the  _grave._  From  _Grayson’s_  grave. And he makes himself walk, not stopping until he reaches the manor—what’s supposed to be his home.

Except Damian’s home is the Penthouse, where he’d made memories of late nights in the Bunker, and hot chocolate after a hard patrol, and warm hugs that he pretended he couldn’t stand when in reality, they reminded that he belonged somewhere. He belonged. Now he doesn’t have any of that, and the weight of reality is almost too much to bear by himself.

Instead of going through the door, Damian grabs onto the rough brickwork of the outside of the manor, and he pulls himself up. He climbs and climbs, until he’s pulling himself onto the roof right below Grayson’s bedroom window.

The lock is easy to pick, and deactivating the security is barely more of a challenge. He slips into Grayson’s room undetected, closes the door, locks the window. Rips the closet door open. Finds an oldie hooded sweatshirt. Puts it on. Lies down on the carefully made bed. All his actions as automatic. It’s like watching someone else perform them. None of it feels quite real.

Once he’s lying down on the bed, though, that’s when it hits him. That’s when reality comes crashing down on him.

Grayson isn’t here. He’s not here anymore. Damian almost can’t believe he Grayson would be stupid enough to go and get himself killed, but Grayson’s always been an imbecile. Still, he’s an imbecile that Damian understands. That he can fight alongside of. Grayson is—was—his partner. They were the best.

Damian breaks down. Tears roll down his cheeks. He stays in Grayson’s room for a long time, well into the night, and he doesn’t move, even when he hears the frantic voices of his brothers and his father searching the house and the grounds. He doesn’t move.

He doesn’t want to move. And he doesn’t think he ever will.

The world is cold, and Damian’s not sure it’ll ever be warm again. Not without Richard Grayson.


End file.
